I looked for the ORD forum but I guess it is gone...

I have a one hour layover (LAX-ORD-IAD) 5am to 6am and want to mail out some postcards from O'Hare. Is there a mailbox somewhere in the airport that I can squeeze in during my quick layover? What's security like if I need to dart out early on a Saturday morning?

A year or so ago, Randy Petersen merged the airport forums with the destination forums. So I will move this to the Chicago forum where it can get the widest input from all ORD users.

cblaisd
Moderator, United

I only know the UA areas, but there may be others.

Terminal 1 Concourse C near at the top of the escalators from the tunnel has a big blue postal mailbox which I have used many times.

There is normally a full-service post office airside between terminals 1 and 2 with clerks available during business hours (won't help you) and a mail drop, but I think it is closed right now due to construction. I'm not sure if they relocated it somewhere else temporarily or not.

Assuming you're flying AA, all of these areas are accessible without exiting security, but Terminal 1 Concourse C is a pretty long walk, but the tunnel to Concourse C is worthwhile for sightseeing if you haven't done it before.

Just be careful where you walk because it is easy to make a wrong turn and unintentionally exit security while walking airside between terminals 3 and 2 and terminals 2 and 1.

Assuming you are going in/out of T-1, there is no need to go outside
security for a mailbox. There is one in the B concourse (near gate B8
I think) and one in the C-concourse near gate C18

Thanks! I'm actually flying UA (those great $133 coast to coast fares).

.

The above post is from 2006. I remember this mailbox. Can anywone confirm it is still there in April of 2015? Even better for me, is there a mail dropbox in Terminal F or Terminal 5?

From the O'Hare web site (FAQ page)

Since ORD is my home airport I usually post my mail elsewhere so I cannot say definitively that there is one by Gate XX. But I did look on the USPS website and they indicate there are no blue collection boxes at O'Hare

I don't know if the USPS website will accurately list airports, since there isn't an exact street address for terminals.

Anyway, I would assume that mailboxes than have previously existed in airports would still exist. I happen to be in C now and the one in front of customer service/near the ATMs has moved some. Now when you come off the escalator, it is immediately to your right, near the elevator that goes down to the tunnel. I won't be making it over to F today, so I'm not sure about T2. I would guess there is one somewhere.

Edit: In B, it is also near the entrance to the tunnel, on the far edge of the Starbucks there.

Just came across the wire yesterday:

***
Two postal employees arrested at O’Hare for stealing items from packages including narcotics
...
According to the complaint affidavits, Brown and Wheeler are Postal Service employees at the International Service Center located at O’Hare Airport, Chicago, Illinois (“International Service Center”) and allegedly have been opening and stealing the contents of Express Mail and Priority Mail parcels. These rifled Express and Priority Mail parcels fit the general profile for parcels which contain narcotics, in that they are sent from narcotics source states, from fictitious senders or to fictitious recipients, and narcotics sniffing canines alert to the parcels. The defendants are alleged to have stolen contents, some which included narcotics, out of Express and Priority Mail parcels from at least 16 pieces of mail on at least seven occasions.
***

http://www.postal-reporter.com/blog/...ing-narcotics/

It is located between Starbucks and the duty free store directly across the way from the foreign currency exchange in concourse B.
18 January 2016

There's also one located past security departures level by M8/9 within T5. (across from the currency exchange)